Hearts achin' for Clay

BY CYNTHIA GREENLEE-DONNELL : The Herald-Sun
cgreenlee@heraldsun.com
May 21, 2003 : 11:25 pm ET

RALEIGH -- Raleigh’s pop-star-in-training Clay Aiken lost his bid to become the second "American Idol" Wednesday night.

Even though Aiken failed to clinch the title and the $1 million recording contract, the 24-year-old Raleigh native still will have the adoration of Triangle fans and a fledgling music career.

Viewers nationwide cast more than 24 million votes by phone and text messages after a Tuesday night sing-off between the Raleigh native and the eventual winner, Birmingham, Ala., crooner Ruben Studdard.

After the announcement, Aiken said, "I couldn’t have had a better experience than this. ... I’m going to beat [Studdard] later for stealing my title. ... We’ll compete again on the charts."

They were the most unlikely pair: the gangly, bubbly Aiken with his dreams of being a teacher, and Studdard, the soft-spoken tenor called the "Velvet Teddy Bear" by singer Gladys Knight.

It was an incredibly close race -- with Studdard taking 50.28 percent of the ballots and runner-up Aiken earning the remaining 49.72 percent. Host Ryan Seacrest gave conflicting reports about how many votes separated the FOX TV reality show’s most consistent and popular performers: first 13,000 and then 1,300. Later reports estimated as much as 130,000 votes separated the two, a number that is closer to the percentages reported.

As the winner, Studdard receives a $1 million contract with RCA Music Group. Inking such a deal also means working with industry powerhouse Clive Davis, who launched the careers of Whitney Houston, Janis Joplin and Alicia Keys.

But as the runner-up, Aiken has an edge that few novice musicians can expect. He has an automatic fan base from the show that regularly ranked in the top 2 of the Nielsen ratings. Aiken will also take part in this summer’s 39-city "American Idol" Tour and continue recording his own album. (Last year’s runner-up, Justin Guarini, has a self-titled album scheduled for a June 10 release.)

Both Aiken and Studdard should have bright musical futures, if the recent showings of songs from "American Idol" mean anything. The "Idol" finalists’ recording of Lee Greenwood’s song "God Bless the U.S.A." sits atop the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart this week. It’s the second song generated by the Fox show to hit No. 1; Kelly Clarkson’s "A Moment Like This" was No. 1 in September.

The finale was an incredible finish for the more than 8,600 Aiken fans who crowded the RBC Center Wednesday for the two-hour finale. They withstood long waits, drizzle, pushing fans and cheers from a yellow-shirted brigade from Cary High to find out if their hometown favorite would win the competition. Fans showed their support by wearing leis of plastic flowers; jerseys emblazoned by the "919" area code; and the popular T-shirt showing Aiken and the slightly adapted biblical quote: "He is the potter, I am the Clay."

Sharon Dike of Raleigh admitted that she rearranged her Tuesdays and Wednesdays around the "American Idol" showings. Though she had no doubt that Aiken would win before the final announcement, she said that should Aiken not win, "I still think he’s a winner. Maybe not the chosen one on the show, but he’s still a winner."

What will she do now that the show is over?

"Go through withdrawal."

Clayton’s Meaghan Marshall, 18, was one of the first "Claymaniacs" to line up at the arena’s West Entrance, arriving there about three-and-a-half hours before the 7 p.m. opening time. She displayed a hot-pink posterboard sign: "Clay is the shiznick." On the other side, she had written "Marry Me, Ryan," but she added, "If Clay would marry me, I’d be happy, too."

Marshall and her girlfriends have been having "Idol" parties since the start, and Marshall was a Clay Aiken supporter from the start.

"When he did his auditions, I thought, ‘Wow, people are going to make fun of him. Then he opened his mouth."

Marshall’s sign joined hundreds of others: "Grandmas for Clay," "Clayton for Clay," "Greetings from North Clay-orlina," "Clayboy Bunny" and "No Matter What, Clay, You’re Our Superstar."